However, I, for one, can't let your boy get away with this one
Witness his proud claim that Christianity actually shaped the core tenets of liberalism in his August 17 Angelus address: “The Christian faith gave form [to Europe], and some of its fundamental values in turn inspired ‘the democratic ideal and the human rights’ of European modernity,” the Pope said.
The Pope did no such thing. First of all, Allen doesn't define "liberalism" here and, secondly, the Pope is speaking of CHRISTIAN FAITH which is not equivalent to Liberalism, no matter how one defines it, and who is Allen to say what the "core tenets" of such a political construct as "Liberalism" means from day to day.
Whatever it does mean, liberalism certainly does not mean the protection of the individual against the ever-growing Leviathan State.
See, that's the problem. Modern political liberalism doesn't mean protection of the individual against the state. But classical liberalism certainly does. After all, Hobbes who gave us the Leviathan was an important influence on those classical liberals, like Locke.